Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Apple Picking and Family Visit!

This past weekend Mom & Dad Formica and Mima came in for the weekend. They arrived on Saturday afternoon and unfortunately brought the rain with them! Oh well, we still had a great time visiting and catching up!

Saturday morning Peter and I had breakfast with Pastor Doug and his wife at another local restaurant. We had met up with Pastor Tim 2 weeks ago for breakfast at Morgan's which was yummy and now we have eaten at Casey's. Both very good diners, which make great breakfasts :) It's been great to get to know the pastors and break down the "barriers" between pastor and church goer haha. Peter and I have both really enjoyed getting to know Pastor Tim as well as Pastor Doug and his wife.

After lunch, we bopped around town doing a few errands and then went home to await the family's arrival. After a brief tour of the house, we sat down for lunch. Mom & Dad have already seen the place, but it's been a year and a half and looks way different. They couldn't even believe it was the same house when they pulled up haha. I had forgotten that they hadn't seen the steps or new paint on the outside etc. We had homemade chicken noodle soup and sandwiches for lunch and spent a few hours at the table chatting away. We continued chatting in the living room for a few hours after that and before we knew it, it was time for dinner! Originally, Peter and I had intended on taking them downtown to walk around for a bit and then dine out at Jamie's Restaurant. I had won a gift certificate there from a radio station and heard it's quite tastey. But with the rain and the driving they had done, we decided to eat in and just hang out at home. I pulled out chicken, 3 kinds of peppers, portobella mushrooms and the homemade alfredo sauce I had made the previous weekend and stored in the freezer and in about 45 minutes or so we were sitting down to a yummy chicken alfredo dinner with salad and homemade bruschetta-sooo good! That evening we watched Oceans 12 while enjoying some homemade brownies and pumpkin roll and ice cream. I've never seen Dad laugh so hard at a movie before haha. It was a great day with family.

On Sunday, we went to church in the morning, stopped by the house for a quite bite of soup and sandwiches again and headed out to Simmons Farm to go apple picking! I love Simmons Farm and the drive up is kinda crazy because you are driving through a beautiful neighborhood of houses and at the top of the hill it opens up to a huge open oasis of farmland with breathtaking views. We picked from a completely different area than we did last year and filled our bag with jonagolds, liberties, and a few golden delicious for Peter :) It was Mima's first time apple picking so it was extra fun to share the experience with her. Mom and Dad had their own bag, as did Peter and I and Mima helped us fill them both. They were each the size of a peck and total cost was $14. Not bad for the apples and the great fun of picking them ourselves :)

Here's a few pictures from our adventures:

Mom and Dad were searching for the best apples to pick...

...as was Mima :)

Mima and me:

Peter felt left out so he took a picture of himself. Obviously he's very excited about apple picking! haha

Fun times had by all :)

These are some of the jonagolds we picked:

And the liberties:

The day started off kind of grey but brightened up, as evidenced by our squinty eyes :P (Even though my eyes always close in pictures haha)

An absolutely beautiful house. I think this is the house of the Simmons who own the farm, maybe?

It's just beautiful up there :)

Again, kinda bright. And this time Peter was trying to tickle me.

It was such a beautiful fall day. The same came out for a bit, but it wasn't too hot. And the air was a bit crisp, but not too cold. :)

In front of the market:

Pumpkins! I love this shot. Very fall-ish :)

This is our peck of apples after being washed. I love this basket from my wedding shower, but rarely use it so am glad to have put it out to display and hold the apples :P

After apple picking, we came home and chatted again, big surprise, I know. And had a snack of brownies and coffee (chai tea for me :P since I don't like coffee). Sunday evening we had pork chops, baked potatoes, and corn on the cob for dinner and finished the last big of Oceans 12. We also had a great time talking with Mom and Dad long after Mima hit the sack.

Monday morning Peter made everyone breakfast and I whipped up some caramel apple oatmeal bars with the apples we picked. I found the recipe online a month or so ago and have been waiting to use it until we've gone apple picking. After breakfast, they packed up and headed out. I packed up some of the caramel apple oatmeal treat for their ride home and by 12 noon, our weekend visit was over.

The rest of Monday Peter and I spent doing random odds and ends around the house and we also watched Oceans 13. I had only seen it once at the drive-ins. It was such a beautiful night when we were there and it was back when we had the truck and had piled blankets in pillows in the back and I ended up sleeping under the stars during the movies haha. So it was good to see it again.

Having an extra day off during the weekend was fun and we loved visiting with family since we're not close enough to do it more often. It still went by too quickly though haha.